Bytes: Dawn of the Apocalypse

"Hey, we left our horses!" Alexis exclaimed, remembering how they had escaped from the skeletons.

"We're gonna be fine if it's just skeletons, right? Let's go get 'em! They should be there," Hunter pointed at the temple, barely visible from the distance.

The group agreed and ran over to their horses, avoiding any encounters with monsters and dodging arrows.

"Alexis, you can use Duke's horse!" Jeana quickly ordered.

They all mounted on their horses and raced away from the desert temple.

"Ouch!" Hunter screamed as an arrow landed on his back.

"Faster, everyone!" Jeana commanded, charging her black horse forwards.

"Hunter, you okay?" Alexis asked.

"Actually, it hurts like the Nether," Hunter replied, trying his best to smile. He then pulled the arrow out of his back, his face vainly trying to conceal the pain.

He threw the arrow away, leaving some blood stains on the sand (not possible in Minecraft though).

Whew, he's tough.

"Hey, what do we do now?" Alexis asked.

"Hmm... We gotta find someplace to sleep." Jeana said.

"Let's build a shelter!" Hunter suggested. "I've always wanted to make an underground one, so... Can we make one..?"

"An underground one..? That seems uncomfortable. You know we all need some fresh air and sunlight,"

Typical Alexis, always talking about sunlight.

"Then we just make a hole on top of it!"

"Then monsters would.. Ah, forget the idea, Hunter!" Jeana chided.

"Sheesh.." Hunter grumbled.

"Creeper!" Alexis cried, seeing a creeper approaching them.

They lurched backwards, Jeana striking an iron pickaxe to its explosive body.

In a few seconds, the creeper burst out in flames, destroying the nearby blocks and disappearing into code..

Bytes.

Oh, so that's why.

"Phew. What a waste of iron," Jeana smiled in relief, succeeding to escape the explosion without a scratch.

Next, they built a simple shelter out of sandstone, dirt, and some blocks they had with them.

"Look how terrible our shelter is, it doesn't even have a door," Alexis commented jokingly.

"At least we have some holes for fresh air," Hunter intoned, emphasizing on the words 'fresh air'.

"You got a problem with that, bro?"

They camped there for the night, their horses kept safe outside, tied to wooden fences.

"Cold..."

The dying voice he had heard last night came into his dreams once again.

This time, the figure in the dream seemed clearer. Alexis caught a glimpse of her long, russet brown hair, which fell onto her shoulders after the cold wind had blown it.

He jolted awake.

Dawn, he thought.

The sun slowly ascended from the horizon, its beautiful lights glowing dimly.

He watched as the phenomenon took place, not noticing the enderman behind him that had been making the holes bigger.

The enderman started making some noise as it teleported, finally making Alexis aware of its presence.

Seeing the purple particles floating in the air, Alexis froze in fear.

Don't look at it in the eyes, don't look at it in the eyes..!

As the sunlight rose slightly closer to them, the enderman warped away, altogether with its other friends who hated the light of day.

Alexis let out a heavy sigh of relief, relaxed to be safe once again.

Unfortunately, the nightmare kept haunting his mind, making him unable to get enough sleep.

He took the blocks he had left in his inventory and replaced the holes with them, hoping no monsters would enter or break them again.

Then he remained inside the shelter, watching the sunrise as he contemplated everything that had happened so far.

His life had been so peaceful and filled with harmony, until a strange man appeared and spread a particular plague.

It all happened in Starblocks.

If just he took the risk to fight and stop the man that time, he might've not escaped from the city and still had everything...

His job, his colleagues, his house...

But on the other side, he would've not made such good friends with these amazing people.

Though it had just been one day, he could feel the strong bonds between them, as if they had been friends in his other incarnations.

He snickered slowly, realizing how dramatic the scene was, though his journey... Had only begun.

[Author's Note]
Some stuff would be way cooler if they existed in Minecraft, and you need lotsa details when writing, so some stuff in the story might not be possible in Minecraft.

You got a problem with that, bro?

..Or respectively sis.

[Fun Fact]
Every chapter is kind of byte-sized, consisting of 700-800 words.